His Majesty's recovery deemed best news this year

This was followed by news about the National Council for Peace and Order taking power and General Prayut Chan-o-cha becoming prime minister with 8 per cent votes, and the end of protests at 6.4 per cent. 

Up to 1,175 people in Bangkok and its vicinity were interviewed for the survey. 

The most tragic pieces of news over the past year were rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl on an overnight train (32 per cent), protests led by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee supporters and the red shirts (18.6 per cent) and other child rapes/murders (9.8 per cent).

Reports that caught the most attention were the arrest of ex-Central Investigation Bureau chief Pongpat Chayapan and members of his network (53 per cent), rape and murder of the teenage girl on the train (51.7 per cent) and the double murder of tourists on Koh Tao (43 per cent). Most interesting foreign reports were the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (42 per cent), the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa (40 per cent) and the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 being shot down in Ukraine (4 per cent).